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Greens Member for Melbourne and industrial relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said the government is on a hiding to nothing after the Senate’s rejection of two key parts of its industrial relations agenda yesterday. The Senate voted down the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014 for a second time and the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013.

“The Senate is standing up for democracy and saying we won’t have separate penalties for unions and fewer rights for people who work in the construction industry,” Mr Bandt said.

The Australian Greens oppose the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014 [No. 2] in its entirety. Here we are again defending Australian workers from the ideological attacks of the besieged Abbott government.

Responding to the Productivity Commission’s draft report into the workplace relations framework, Greens employment and industrial relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said the Greens will make penalty rates a key election issue in the upcoming Federal Election. “Any cuts to penalty rates will be a body blow for young people across the country,” Mr Bandt said.

“With housing prices so high and wages growing so slowly, young people working in retail and hospitality depend on penalty rates to support themselves and make ends meet.”

Responding to reports that a further 270 jobs are to be cut from Holden in South Australia, Greens Deputy Leader and industry spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said SA is bleeding jobs and yet Tony Abbott still has no plan for the state.

"Next month, a further 270 people in South Australia will be out of a job, with no clear options for what is next," Mr Bandt said.

"Tony Abbott is happy to sit back and watch the whole Australian auto industry shut down, seeing tens of thousands of people uprooted or thrown out of work."

Greens Deputy Leader and science and industrial relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today called for the government to do for our scientists what it did for our defence personnel and abandon its unfair bargaining policy.

"This government has already cut over $100 million dollars from the CSIRO, seeing hundreds of scientists lose their jobs. Now Tony Abbott is making life harder for the scientists and researchers who remain behind, forcing them to do more for less," Mr Bandt said.

Greens Deputy Leader and Employment and Workplace Relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to rule out changes to penalty rates and the minimum wage after Small Business Minister Bruce Billson backed a review of penalty rates over Easter.

Greens Deputy Leader and Industrial Relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP responded to the Federal Court’s unanimous decision that the Government has unlawfully tried to circumvent existing legislation in the offshore resources sector by calling on the government to respect the will of the Parliament and the court.

“The umpire has just red-carded the Abbott government for trying flout the law and the Parliament,” said Mr Bandt.

Greens Deputy Leader and workplace relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said today the Senate has backed the creation of a broad-ranging Senate inquiry into Australia's working visa system, including the use of 457 visas.

“The Senate today has gotten behind our push for a landmark inquiry into the working visa system,” Mr Bandt said.

"With rising unemployment and a mining investment boom coming off the boil, now is the time to ask whether the current working visa system strikes the right balance."